FREEDOM AND JUSTICE FOR ALL

Don Doig

The Fully Informed Jury Association is dedicated to liberty and the Bill of Rights. We promote tolerance of other people's rights, religious preferences, cultural backgrounds, race or ethnicity, and lifestyles, provided they are peaceful, non-invasive and not predatory on other people or their property. We support the Bill of Rights.

We perceive that this country has reached a state of crisis, due to unrelenting usurpation of power by the state and federal governments. The Bill of Rights is under siege, the Constitution is ignored routinely, and ordinary, peaceful citizens have been subject to SWAT team raids complete with military hardware. Horrific attacks on our rights are made almost faster than we can follow, and more are planned.

On top of this, the people are at each other's throats, goaded on by the media, tricked into thinking that other citizens are their chief threat. A people united under liberty, with power devolved or decentralized to the lowest possible level, is hard to conquer. But a people manipulated and lied to, is subject to incitement to hysteria, to acceptance of attacks on the Bill of Rights in the name of suppressing one part or another of the citizenry. A people divided against themselves is likely to lose sight of the source of their oppression, which always comes from central authority and those in a position to buy influence and control--in whose interest it is to "divide and conquer".

Attacks on the jury system abound after the media circus surrounding the O.J. Simpson trial. Moves are afoot to further weaken trial by jury. Federal and state legislation is being proposed to eliminate the requirement for unanimity, one of the pillars of meaningful trial by jury. And some among the population are unthinkingly agreeing. Benjamin Franklin said that those who would give up essential liberty for the sake of a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security. And we would add, are not likely to get it.

We at FIJA are trying to hold together a very diverse coalition which has united in favor of a very fundamental right--trial by jury-- which is important to people who otherwise have not much in common--or who strongly differ on one or a few things. Our policy is that people who support the Bill of Rights in general and Trial by Jury in particular are welcome in FIJA. We would suggest that given the overwhelming threat to our most fundamental liberties we try even harder to put aside differences that under other circumstances might preclude us from associating with people who have incompatible beliefs or lifestyles. There is too much at stake to allow ourselves to be divided. FIJA will be attacked for its policy of tolerance and inclusion, but we will weather it.